The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

The Teachings of Ajahn Suchart

19th April, 2022

Question:  Is chanting considered as rites and rituals?

Than Ajahn:  No. Chanting is the practice of developing mindfulness. Rites and rituals are the activities that you perform because you expect to get something out of it. Like when you are sick, and then you perform some rituals and expect that the rituals you’ve done can cure your sickness. 

Chanting in order to develop mindfulness is the practice of noble eightfold path, sammā-sati (right mindfulness). 

Question:  A group of friends from the Buddhist Society has started to chant Ratana Sutta on every Sunday, and one of them was saying that what we were doing was a kind of rites and rituals. 

Than Ajahn:  It depends on what you want from your chanting. If you chant and you expect to get rich, or you want to get well from your illness, then this is rites and rituals. But if you chant because you want to calm your mind, then this is the practice of noble eightfold path, sammā-sati (right mindfulness). 

So it depends on what you expect to get from doing chanting. If you chant and you expect to get rich from your chanting, then this is rites and rituals because it can’t happen. 

Question:  Our Sunday meeting started last year during the pandemic and one of the Buddhist Society members suggested that we chant Ratana Sutta as a kind of protection from the pandemic. Is this considered as rites and rituals?

Than Ajahn:  When you chant, you protect your mind, you can’t protect your body. Even the Buddha couldn’t protect his body.  When his body was sick, and was going to die, he couldn’t protect it. But he could protect his mind from experiencing any suffering caused by the illness of the body. 

So, when you chant, you want to protect your mind, to make your mind have equanimity.

Question:  So, as long as our intention when we chant the Ratana Sutta is to protect our mind, it is a form of mindfulness training, it isn’t considered as rites and rituals. 

Than Ajahn:  Right. It’s okay to chant if you want to develop Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi, Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi (Dhamma as your refuge). This Dhamma is mindfulness (sati). 

Layperson:  Thank you, Ajahn.

“Dhamma in English, Dec 28, 2021.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto

www.phrasuchart.com

YouTube:  Dhamma in English.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g